From Fear and Frailty to Arlington Road and A Simple Plan, the following are 15 underrated thrillers that the world has slept on.
Thrillers are movies that can cross genres, with crime and suspense effortlessly merging with horror, romance, comedy, and drama when done right.
But sometimes great thrillers get overlooked at the time of release, or forgotten about the moment they leave theaters.
So the following are 15 thrilling gems that we believe deserve more recognition, with unheralded movies from the last 70 years represented, and well worth tracking down.
15. Fear
- Release date: April 12, 1996
- Director: James Foley
- Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon, William Petersen, Alyssa Milano
What it’s about: A shy teenager falls for a charming older guy who becomes possessive, controlling, and then dangerously violent.
Why we like it: The 1990s gave us the husband from hell (Sleeping with the Enemy), the babysitter from hell (Hand That Rocks the Cradle), and the landlord from hell (Pacific Heights), while Fear revolved around the boyfriend from hell, who was played by unexpected choice Mark Wahlberg. But the artist formerly known as Marky Mark is utterly convincing as a smiling sociopath, while Fear builds towards a genuinely nail-biting finale.
14. Sleep Tight
- Release date: October 14, 2011
- Director: Jaume Balagueró
- Cast: Luis Tosar, Marta Etura, Alberto San Juan
What it’s about: A seemingly polite apartment concierge hides a chilling obsession with one tenant, and begins manipulating her life from the shadows.
Why we like it: Sleep Tight is one of the most unnerving home-invasion thrillers ever made, because the villain is in the home before the story begins. Luis Tosar delivers a quietly terrifying performance that turns the ordinary routine of daily life into something much more horrifying, in a movie that will have you checking under the bed before you go to sleep at night.
13. A Perfect Getaway
Release date: August 7, 2009
Director: David Twohy
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant, Kiele Sanchez
What it’s about: While honeymooning in Hawaii, a couple learn that killers may be posing as tourists on the same trail. As paranoia builds, everyone they meet becomes a suspect.
Why we like it: A Perfect Getaway toys with the audience just as the unidentified predators at the heart of the movie toy with their prey. Writer-director David Twohy makes inventive use of the stunning scenery, while his script is a masterclass in misdirection that layers twist upon twist.
12. The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Release date: June 26, 1973
Director: Peter Yates
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Steven Keats
What it’s about: A weary Boston gunrunner faces prison unless he cooperates with the police. Torn between loyalty and survival, Eddie Coyle navigates a web of criminals who trust no one.
Why we like it: Grim, gritty, and steeped in melancholy, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is one of the most fascinating portrayals of low-level crime ever committed to celluloid. Director Peter Yates keeps it real right up until the devastating denouement, while Robert Mitchum delivers a haunting late-career performance.
11. Roadgames
Release date: April 10, 1981
Director: Richard Franklin
Cast: Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marion Edward, Grant Page
What it’s about: Lonely truck driver and young hitchhiker suspect a murderer is operating along an Australian highway, but proving their theory puts them both in danger.
Why we like it: This sun-baked Australian thriller plays like Rear Windows on wheels, with the vast Australian landscape providing an eerie backdrop, and Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis making an unlikely romantic pair who you’ll be praying don’t bite the dust.
10. One False Move
Release date: May 8, 1992
Director: Carl Franklin
Cast: Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Cynda Williams, Michael Beach
What it’s about: Three criminals on the run cross paths with a small-town sheriff desperate for some action. Their collision exposes dark secrets on both sides of the law.
Why we like it: Carl Franklin announced himself as a modern-day film noir master with this intelligent and quietly devastating Southern-fried thriller. Sparks fly when Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton share the screen, through a script that balances high tension with moral complexity.
9. Séance on a Wet Afternoon
Release date: April 10, 1964
Director: Bryan Forbes
Cast: Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Nanette Newman
What it’s about: A self-styled psychic and her meek husband kidnap a child to fake their own supernatural success, but the scheme quickly spirals out of control.
Why we like it: Kim Stanley delivers a mesmerising performance that’s both tragic and terrifying in a thriller that feels decades ahead of its time. Writer-director Bryan Forbes builds dread through stillness rather than shocks, crafting a psychological thriller that packs a powerful punch, and is being remade with Rachel Weisz in the lead.
8. Frailty
Release date: April 12, 2002
Director: Bill Paxton
Cast: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O’Leary
What it’s about: A man recounts how his deeply religious father became convinced he was chosen to destroy demons posing as humans, and how that belief tore their family apart.
Why we like it: In a quietly menacing performance, Matthew McConaughey kicks off Frailty by telling an FBI agent he has the key to the ‘God’s Hand’ serial killings. What follows is a frightening and through-provoking tale of familial horror, where faith is used as fuel for fear.
7. The River Wild
Release date: September 30, 1994
Director: Curtis Hanson
Cast: Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn, John C. Reilly
What it’s about: A family rafting trip turns deadly when violent fugitives appear on the scene, and survival becomes a battle of wits and endurance.
Why we like it: Meryl Streep the action hero? It happened in 1994, via this hugely entertaining thriller that pits the acting legend against Kevin Bacon’s slick, unpredictable, ruthless villain, who makes the mistake of getting between a mother and her kids. Spills and thrills ensue.
6. Arlington Road
- Release date: July 9, 1999
- Director: Mark Pellington
- Cast: Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Hope Davis
What it’s about: A widowed professor investigating domestic terrorism begins to suspect his new neighbors aren’t who they claim to be.
Why we like it: Arlington Road is pure paranoia transformed into pure cinema. Hollywood heavyweights Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins go toe-to-toe in exhilarating fashion, and their tense interactions escalate the suspense to an almost unbearable level, until the movie explodes in a bold climax that remains shocking some 25 years on.
5. The Last of Sheila
Release date: June 14, 1973
Director: Herbert Ross
Cast: James Coburn, Dyan Cannon, Raquel Welch, Ian McShane
What it’s about: A wealthy movie producer invites a group of friends to his yacht for a murder-mystery game, but as secrets surface, the game turns deadly.
Why we like it: The Last of Sheila was penned by unlikely screenwriting duo Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, and based on parlour games played with their friends. The result is a puzzle box of a movie mixes that Hollywood satire with razor-sharp suspense where every delicious twist and turn is earned.
4. Breakdown
Release date: May 2, 1997
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Cast: Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan, M.C. Gainey
What it’s about: When a couple’s car breaks down in the middle of the desert, the husband accepts help from a passing truck driver, at which point his wife disappears without a trace.
Why we like it: Breakdown is a masterclass in streamlined suspense, being a lean, mean, and perfectly paced Hitchockian thriller. Kurt Russell delivers a desperately sympathetic performance as an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances, while the story combines elements of Duel, The Vanishing, The Hitcher, and Hitchcock’s own The Lady Vanishes.
3. Thief
Release date: March 27, 1981
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky, Willie Nelson
What it’s about: A professional safecracker wants out of the criminal life, but finds that one final job – and the syndicate behind it – won’t let him go.
Why we like it: Michael Mann’s feature debut is pure neo-noir precision, where stunning nighttime photography, a thumping synth score, James Caan’s intense performance, and a script in existential crisis combine for a hypnotic and ultimately enigmatic thrill-ride.
2. Headhunters
Release date: April 27, 2012
Director: Morten Tyldum
Cast: Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synnøve Macody Lund
What it’s about: A corporate recruiter with a secret side hustle stealing art targets the wrong mark – a ruthless former mercenary who turns the tables in uncompromising fashion.
Why we like it: This Norwegian thriller is slick, sleek, darkly funny, and full of genuine shocks. The cat-and-mouse games between the brilliant Aksel Hennie and the equally brilliant Nikolaj Coster-Waldau are filtered through a very Scandinavian lens, while it builds to a wildly entertaining finale that you definitely won’t see coming.
1. A Simple Plan
Release date: December 11, 1998
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda, Brent Briscoe
What it’s about: Three men discover a crashed plane full of cash and decide to keep the money, but that choice has devastating and ultimately deadly consequences.
Why we like it: A Simple Plan takes Western classic The Treasure of Sierra Madre and gives it a blackly comical modern-day spin that delves into the dark side of the human psyche. Scott B. Smith’s script – based on his own novel – doesn’t waste a word of dialogue, while director Sam Raimi doesn’t waste a minute of film to tell a tense and ultimately tragic tale.
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